Click here, or on Articles in the left hand column on this page, and see our new June 2005 articles. Rebecca’s new article, written with Bonnie Burwell, is in Searcher Magazine, June 2005, “Libraries and Their Service Portfolios”. Jane’s article is in the Canadian Library Association’s, Feliciter, Issue 3, 2005, “Why Libraries Fail & Tips for Staying Alive”.

Don Mills, Director, Mississauga Library System, had this to say:
“I want to commend Feliciter for the excellent article by Jane Dysart on “Why Libraries Fail & Tips for Staying Alive” in Issue 3, 2005. The ten tips offered are a crash course in the delicate art of library survival — and success — in today’s reality. I would encourage all younger librarians to keep this article close at hand for their careers ahead. I would encourage all library managers to circulate these tips to staff for reflection, comment, and self evaluation, both personal and institutional. The theory is great and necessary, but the practical is pure gold!”

Since planning is a large part of Dysart & Jones’ consulting practice and our passion, materials relating to planning are always of interest. I pointed to Dave Pollard’s blog on environmental scanning on April 25th of this year, and here’s a great series on environmental scanning (ES) from Alane Wilson of OCLC. She was the editor of the famous OCLC 2003 Environmental Scan.

In her blog, Alane has series on ES, four parts, Alane includes a definition, comments on the lack of information on ES in the library literature, great links to more information on ES as well as examples, practical comments on the process used by OCLC for their scan, tips on how to be successful in doing your own scan. She promises to talk about what do to once you have the scan in the fourth part of the series.

It is her comments about mindset and skills, however, that I like best.
Alane talks about ES taking an “outside-in” very broad view of the environment — the long view of the world. It reminded of talks I have heard from Stewart Brand, of the Long Now Foundation, who has been talking about an even longer view — in the thousands of years. It is so hard for us to look around and forward but it is so critical to our plans and accomplishments. Alane comments, “that “inside-out” planning is why librarians find themselves at the periphery of the new information universe”. I agree, and it is true for other groups as well. We all might believe that we are the center of the universe but there are always bigger, broader communities and environments in which we must operate and the impact of political, economic, social and technological changes and trends will definitely be felt by all of us. As Hamel and Prahalad said in their book, Competing for the Future, we have to spend the time cosidering the implications and planning for the future.

Alane also points out what is important for good environmental scans:
* top-level support
* know why you’re doing a scan
* decide how it will be done and who will do it
* decide how the results will be communicated
* must lead to action

as well as the skills necessary:
* curiosity
* “big-picture” ability
* willingness to see beyond the status quo
* ability to synthesize a lot of disparate information
* ability to spot “early wanrning signs” — the beginnings of a trend
* facility with numbers and spreadsheets
* dedication to recording the sources

And no, she doesn’t see all these qualities in one person which is why she recommends a team approach to ES. Thanks, Alane.